Gassed Up

Gensler and Reebok team up to design the gas stations of the future

Gensler and Reebok team up to design the gas stations of the future. The Community Center scheme is pictured here. (Courtesy Reebok and Gensler)

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What will happen to gas stations once drivers switch over to electric vehicles? Reebok and Gensler are trying to find out, and have teamed up for a “Get Pumped” partnership that imagines repurposing the gas stations of 2030 as community fitness hubs.

Get Pumped imagines turning the car charging stations of the future into “people charging” stations. (Courtesy Reebok and Gensler)

First announced by Reebok, the initiative imagines a future where automobiles are all electric, and 71 million of the 260 million cars on the road are autonomously driven. Gas stations are usually centrally located and easily accessible, and Get Pumped proposes adapting them into community fitness centers.

“This design work with Gensler allows us to imagine a future where there is zero barrier to entry for an opportunity to work out and be healthy,” said Austin Malleolo, head of Reebok fitness facilities. “Consumers may not need gas stations anymore, but instead of wasting them, we’re recycling them, and maximizing the space so that they become places of community.”

Gensler and Reebok focused on three station typologies for adaptive reuse:

The Network would transform the interstate rest stop into gyms where travelers can recharge their cars as well as their spirits. Described as the “power grid of the future” by Reebok, these charging stations would feature boxing, spinning, Crossfit, running trails and Les Mils.

The Network scheme. (Courtesy Reebok and Gensler)

The Oasis model would turn the larger gas stations typically found on local highways into nutrition hubs, offering farm to table restaurants, juice bars, and yoga and meditation hubs. Outside, passerbys could visit the fresh herb garden or run on a rooftop track.

The Oasis scheme. (Courtesy Reebok and Gensler)

The Community Center scheme proposes repurposing the local community gas stations into healthier living stations, where guests can work out, take a quick nutrition class, or shop for healthy food as their car charges. Because these stations are typically smaller but more densely clustered, each converted community center would work in tandem and form a greater network.

While Get Pumped is the first step in laying out a potential framework for changing what the “gas station of the future” might look like, it’s worth remembering the challenges involved. Any gas station conversion would be precluded by an intensive amount of soil remediation, as toxic petroleum often soaks into the underlying dirt. Although this type of adaptive reuse project has certainly been done before, the feasibility of doing so on a nation-wide scale would be unprecedented, especially as more and more stations close and are simply torn down.